Paper, Scissors, Yak
by Grav
Summary: Some things just don't translate through culture. And some things do.


AN: **Thassalia's Fic**: "...when he and Cam did rock paper scissors to see who would to teach her baseball and who was on nail polish duty, Daniel threw scissors like always (because the game makes no sense, but everyone refuses to learn the more complicated Abydosian version)."

**gravity**: I suddenly need to know how the Abydonians play paper, scissors, rock.

**Thassalia**: My guess is that it's either far less metaphorical, or involves a much larger number of potential things that crush or hide other things, layered with subtleties of wind and the alignment of the stars. Dude, they don't have TV!!

**Uiseboo**: I think it's called 'sand, papyrus, tent, yak, evil-overlord'. In some versions, the "evil-overlord" is replaced with "mother-in-law." It takes both hands, and sometimes facial expressions and hip gyrations. ;-D

Spoilers: vague for the movie.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Summary: It's called 'sand, papyrus, tent, yak, evil-overlord'. In some versions, the "evil-overlord" is replaced with "mother-in-law." It takes both hands, and sometimes facial expressions and hip gyrations.

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**Paper, Scissors, Yak**

_Evil Overlord beats Yak_

Daniel didn't need to see the glyphs of what Jack had termed "death gliders" firing on herds of helpless cow-type creatures to understand that the Goa'uld would win in a battle with the local version of the yak. Kasuf explained that every year a hundred of the finest stock were sacrificed to Ra on the steps of his temple. Daniel, feeling a little foolish, asked what happened to the fallen beasts and Kasuf replied that they were burnt.

Holocaust sacrifice was not unknown to Daniel, but the idea of it made him angry on several levels. To begin with, it was a waste. The Abydonians were practically starving and every year, they had to kill off one hundred of their best animals. Not only did they lose the meat, they also lost the breeding stock. Most ancient cultures reserved holocaust sacrifice for the most desperate times, and even then, never in such numbers. In all other cases, some of the offering was burnt to the gods and the rest was eaten by the celebratory populace. It seems the Goa'uld never got their Prometheus.

The first year Daniel lived on Abydos, the traditional sacrifice was scaled back to ten. Some of the offering, the stomach, the fat, the unclean parts, were burned and offered almost mockingly to Ra. The following party and feast lasted a very, very long time.

_Yak beats Sand_

Sha're liked to hear stories of Earth, and Daniel told her everything he could think of. She liked the stories of China, for she liked patterns and finely made objects. When he told her of rock gardens, she was entranced. He had drawn a rudimentary one on the ground with his finger, but her speculative looks at the empty space beside their tent informed him that it would not be long before something on a larger scale occurred.

Armed with a rake and her indomitable determination, Sha're spent the better part of the next day painstakingly creating patterns in the dirt. They were intricate and Daniel found he had trouble following one line all the way through. He watched her for a while and was impressed at the skill she had, given that this was only her first attempt.

Just as the sun was setting, she came inside and set the rake aside. Daniel smiled at her and told her that it was beautiful and she smiled back at him. She set about putting the final touches on dinner (she would let Daniel set the table and cut things up some times, but she had little regard for his cooking). There was a shout from outside the tent and Skaara appeared.

In his loud and cheerful voice, Skaara announced that he had finally managed to find a gift suitable for his sister and her husband. Daniel asked what it was, and Skaara replied that he had purchased a large mastiff, but didn't get any further before Sha're rushed to the door and discovered that her wedding gift had just finished destroying her days work.

Daniel would never tell, but his wife revealed later in the evening after all the fireworks that making it had been most of the fun anyway, and that Skaara often needed to be taken down a peg sometimes, especially since he met Jack O'Neill.

_Sand beats Tent_

It is Abydonian tradition that the first month of a marriage is spent living in a tent. There are all sorts of reasons for this, but Daniel suspects the main one is that any couple that can survive each other in a tent for 36 days (the Abydonian calendar is one of the first thing Daniel plans to correct as soon as he has walls again), is destined for a happy wedded life. What he hadn't taken into account was the sand.

He understands the principle of tents in the desert. Rock is scarce and labour intensive. Tents are cool and portable and relatively cheap to make and fix. Where he thinks tents fall short of the mark is that they do nothing to prevent sand from entering. Within two days, Daniel has sand in several places he'd rather not think about, and even the rugs on the floor seem to let it seep through.

For thirteen more days he endures. It's not all bad. He's on something like a honeymoon, after all, and here they take that literally, but at the same time, he wishes that he could just be clean again.

On the fifteenth day there is a sandstorm. The tent does not hold up well. Daniel goes looking for a house the next day.

_Tent beats Papyrus_

When Daniel is walking to the Pyramid one day, he notices something sticking out of the sand that wasn't there the day before. He calls out to Skaara and they divert from their course to see what it is. When they get close, Daniel realizes that it is the aerial of a radio, and that he has found the camp that Jack's men abandoned during that first sandstorm way back when they arrived.

After sending Skaara to get some help, Daniel begins to excavate. This isn't like the ordered and documented excavation Daniel is used to. This is looking for old friends he thought were lost.

By the time Skaara and his friends return, Daniel has uncovered a store of ammunition (which Skaara gleefully collects), three hats (which soon find heads) and a collapsible table (which causes great amusement). They fall to work and soon discover what Daniel was looking for: his books.

They lie under the tent's roof. The wind must have pushed it over or it buckled from the weight of the sand, but it landed on his books and protected them from the storm and the events that followed.

That night, Daniel starts reading them stories. They know some of them, but some are new. And during the day, Daniel teaches the children and anyone else who wants to learn, to write them out for themselves.

_Papyrus beats Evil Overlord_

Leather, Daniel remembers from a lecture on degradation way back in undergrad, is remarkably resilient. Of all organic remains, it is the most likely to be preserved (unless, ironically, there is a fire, which actually preserves everything else), surviving in bogs, underwater and in deserts. There are reasons for this, but they deal with things the Abydonians aren't really ready to grasp yet, so Daniel just tells them that leather is strong, which they all know anyway, and lets it go at that.

When Skaara brings him the case, he holds it out before him like it's something holy. Daniel knows without touching it that it is old, but he will probably never be able to date it accurately, unless it has something written on it that says "Made in Date". Daniel takes it carefully from his clearly excited brother-in-law, and the leather cracks in spite of his care.

Daniel's fingers are clever, and he softly unravels the tie that holds the case shut. It is wrapped, a scroll, and he wonders at first if something is written on the leather itself, but a tell-tale crackle reveals otherwise and soon he holds a yellowed piece of papyrus in his hands.

The ink is still clear and though it takes him a few moments to translate the glyphs, there are pictures drawn in the margins that leave no doubt as to what they have found.

He is so excited that he reads it aloud immediately, stumbling over the few murky glyphs and correcting his mistakes as he goes. This is how the story of how the people came to Abydos. How they tried to fight, but could not overthrow the god. How they hoped and prayed for deliverance. And how they desperately recorded what they could to preserve a dying way of life. This is a map to the cave of symbols. This is the written history that Ra could not blot out.

Daniel makes many copies and teaches the words of it first in all his classes. Of all the things he wishes he had from Earth, it's two pieces of glass so that he could preserve the papyrus forever. For now, it stays in the leather and beats the gods.

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**finis**

AN: In some Near Eastern cultures, the bride's family provided the newlyweds with enough honeyed mead for a month, or moon.

GravityNotIncluded, March 10, 2007


End file.
